Category Archives: _Asia_

Mihintale

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We were leaving the hotel early this morning (actually, we thought, it was early – as we had to learn later on, this morning indeed was a fairly average one) to beat the crowds at Mihintale.

Mihintale is a Buddhist pilgrimage site and links back to the introduction of Buddhism to Sri Lanka. Stairs lead up a hill to a number of religious monuments; en route one passes many abandoned structures and ruins – including the ruins of a monastery.

We were given a guided tour of the ruin site before making it up the last flight of stairs to the actual religious site – the more adventurous of us made it up Aradhana Gala (Meditation Rock), while the others covered the easier climb to the Buddha status. We met up again later on for a walk around the Mahaseya Dagoba.

Editorial note: don’t get confused by the word dagoba – it is not more than the Sinhalese word for a stupa; I will use the two words interchangeably.

Welcome to Negombo, Sri Lanka

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Like in many other years before, I – once more – used the month of November to leave grey Germany behind and get in some sun and heat.
As my trip to Southern India two years back had made me curious on the region, Sri Lanka was a natural pick, especially as some opportunities around flights and tour came up … quickly I was booked …

After 14 hours on planes and in airports (and about six movies) I finally had arrived in Sri Lanka and continued to the tour starting point of Negombo.

With close proximity to the aiport and its (fairly so-so) beach, Negombo certainly makes a good start and endpoint for a tour of Sri Lanka, however I would certainly not want to stay much longer here than a day or two.

The group got together on the evening of the 19th with the usual introductions, tour overview and information – – and it started with a surprise: in my group there were two known faces … at first I did not know, where to put them – but in the end my memory did not fail me and I found myself in company of two fellow travelers from my Japan trip back in 2008 – – really makes you wonder, what the odds are for that one … hitting the jackpot in Vegas (or Macao) might be more likely … anyhow, clearly shows how small the world is at last.

Sunday morning started with a quick tour of town: a short stop at the fish market (not too much to see here, given it was Sunday and the fishermen – supposedly – in church), a quick view of the former fort (now prison – therefore just quick), a short visit at the harbor, a glance of the Dutch canals and finally our chance for a church visit (or checking for the fishermen). From here we continued towards our next destination – Anuradhapura.

 

Back to Hanoi

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We arrived back to Hanoi in the early afternoon. I felt miserable and cold after the long, bumpy ride on the bus; the cool and rainy weather in Hanoi did not help much either. After a shower I decided for a walk over to the Quán Thánh Temple and the West Lake with the Trấn Quốc Pagoda. A nearby tea / coffee place offered a good break and I did feel well again, so after consulting my guide book and google, I decided to continue for the Hanoi citadel.

The citadel used to be the residence of the Vietnamese kings and goes back to the 11th century; in 2010 it was recognized as UNESCO world heritage site. More interesting for me though – the citadel was also home of the Vietnamese military command – complete with hidden bunkers and tunnels.

Hue … first Impressions

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After our arrival in Hue we had lunch with a local family (I should probably rephrase that to feast), followed by some first sightseeing with the Thien Mu Pagoda being our first stop. This historic temple dates back to the early 17th century, the pagoda is (based on wikipedia) is the tallest religious building in Vietnam.

After our visit we boarded a boat to make the trip back on the perfume river. After our downtown arrival and a short walk back to the hotel, I ventured out for another walk around town – making my way towards the Dieu De Pagoda. I walked back through the citadel – and made it back to the hotel just after dark.

On the Road to Hue

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We left Hoi an on Christmas Day, continuing our journey North with Hue – roughly 130km away – being our next destination.

En-route we had a number of further stops, the first already after about half an hour at Da Nang’s Chinese Beach. After crossing a high pass along the way, we had a further stop at a beach before proceeding to Hue.

Christmas Eve

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Today was also Christmas Eve – and the hotel had organized a Christmas Eve Gala Dinner – and really put an effort into it. The tables were arranged around the pool, nicely decorated, candles floating in the water, a small stage set up and a massive buffet prepared (with a great selection of food and live barbecue); there was even a guy in a Santa Claus costume. Things seemed perfect – until the entertainment started …

Entertainment seemed to consist of a weird combination of speeches, strange (at least from a Western perspective) games and karaoke. Things started to get strange straight after the speech of the hotel manager (most guests still eating at this point) – when they were looking for volunteers for the first game (which had a karaoke feeling to it, though – I think, no one really fully understood, what the game was about). Short to say – no volunteers could be found, so things moved on to the next speech and a draw. There were also no volunteers for the following set of singing – so now the hotel staff had to take it and we witnessed the various hotel departments come to stage.

Another game was on thereafter … kind of the Vietnamese version of a Piñata. I volunteered and got rewarded with fridge magnets and glitter down to my underwear (the Vietnamese Piñata is filled with glitter – and I ran straight into the glitter shower after I had hit the thing). More singing was to come after the game and the tables started to empty. We were some of the last ones to leave.

Lessons learned:

  • culture shock can be two ways … here we had a Western holiday (and one which traditionally is one of the more contemplative ones) – and the Vietnamese concept of celebration clashing. For the Westerners the program simply did not fit the occasion (this would have been perfect for a New Year’s Eve party after dinner), while our Vietnamese hosts could not understand that we would not volunteer for some fun on this happy day … mutual culture shock …
  • the folks from accounting actually could sing – house keeping though would easily go through as torture per the Geneva conventions.

Looking back – it was actually a fun evening – the food was great and – while the show may have been unexpected, it was still entertaining – so, what more to ask for!?